The Internet!

Is there truely Privacy on the internet. If you ask me there isn't. Privacy on the internet is what you make of it. Knowing this and being smart/sneaky about it from the start can keep you safe.

Recently I was doing one of my normal searches to see what could be found on me online. This is a normal thing for my Paranoid mind. Somewhere even before I became addicted to the internet I had decided that not beinging known was better then being findable.

Privacy is something of Dreams in this day and age. our Identities are Flushed thru Millions of computers before we even get out of bed in the Morning. We are processed as if we had barcodes. You are watched and tracked even if you don't notice it. This is the age of computers. This is what we have become a nation of watched souls, Is it for the goverment or for our safety. No mostly it is for Advertising. Your Computer no matter how safe you think you have made you computer you still connect to the internet so you give them a start. downloading programs also gives "them" a way into your computer.

Spyware is a large industy online it is used to track what sites you look at what you by. Your user information in some cases your password. Spyware can read the cookies on your machine. Spyware hides on your machine. Now what is such a program that can track you doing being Downloaded to your machine, Discuised as some part of a game or Tangent file? Maybe part of a Peer to Peer program. Telling Corporate America what kind of pop-up's to infect your computer with.

Spyware is preventable and avoidable. Keep and update Spyware blockers and Adaware programs. Run them once a week and keep track of what sites you go to and what kind of spyware your computer has contracted. This will help save you from having to pay someone, or reinstall your Operating system eventually. You see the company I work for allows us to "surf the net" Yet has no way of keeping these programs out. Then since we are locked out of the desktop we have no way of defeating these enemies. So we have been known to lose computers to these Foes.

Simply keeping track and cleaning your system will keep your computer from melting down Due to these. what also might be suggested is losing internet exploder...I mean explorer. Major geek has a few different browser options that might help you out. I use and recommend Maxthon, it is a IE cover that allows you to control your internet environment , it Also will block pop-ups and web ads too. Meaning you won't see them at all. Nice feature. Other nice things about other browsers it most have the all in one function. Where you have multiple windows opened in one window. saves on Cluttering your Desktop.

Now that you have your system cleaned and somewhat protected. Lets move on to Finding you. Lets play a game how you win the game is to come up with no hits on your name. Start with Google, First your legal name, Nick names and then Alias' and email addresses. Alias' and email addresses don't count but Will keep you informed of people keeping track of you or yourLivejoural. Don't say it can't happen look at our last topic and you will see mine made it somewhere it shouldn't have. Then check this list:

Whitepages.com Has a reverse look up too. so If someone has your number and it is listed they can find you.
Dex.com
Yellowpages.com
tucows.com If you have a Domain.

Now I know that this all seams strange, But if you can find you so can someone else. Then you can end up dealing with knowing how to handle Identity Theft. Since I don't want to do that I have a few suggestions here too. Know the system.
Email addresses that Include your name and birth year...BAD
Email addresses that are your name First and Last...Bad
Email addresses that are slightly Generic for Business lastnamefm12@yahoo.com good. there could be millions of SmithJd22@yahoo.com or jonesrr99@hotmail.com.

Don't underestimate the power of having a junk email account. Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail are wonderful FREE accounts and all of them can be used as your spam folder. When I worked for an internet provider I had people calling all the time like we could stop the spam cold from emailing them, I got threats on being sued if we didn't. Spam too can be stopped. And it is easy. This is how it is done. Go to yahoo or Hotmail, use an Invite to Gmail and set up an email address if can be the same name you have. For this I have just set up Azarmoon1@yahoo.com this will now be a junk email address. say I am going to buy something online and it demands I give it an email address instead of giving it my good clean used for family friends and true business reasons email I am going to give it Azarmoon1@yahoo.com. When I buy something online then I will (other then clean it out daily or weekly) Look for that receipt in that box. Now you have a spam folder. This will not stop the "hey you bought this item" emails it will curb them somewhere else, AND for companies that sell your Information it will also collect all your Porn mail. Which when you need a laugh is always fun to read the titles.

Now when looking For other uses for your Spam account. Everyone has a friend will who send them spam, that would be the person who sends you Religious Spam, FWD emails and if you love me crap, feel free to give them this address, sometimes they send a good thing but you never know what it is. I honestly blocked a friend of mine after many warnings about religious spam in my NON-spam account. Feel free to lay down the law with people like this...or give them your Spam account. Now actually reading the email in this folder is enter at your own risk. This folder will be know to get the Virus emails too. So if you don't know the email address don't open it. Unless you know it is a virus and want to lose your internet at work.

This little bit of advice can save you hours of work or $100's of Dollars. Because honestly Most Techs feel no mercy for you if you were Dumb enough to open the "you may have just won 1 million dollars" email. The best I way I could decribe the handling of these emails is, think of it as you just got a publishers clearing house letter. Well you didn't know it but it was laced with blowfish poison. You touch that and you die...but it says I could win a million. So you open it. And you Die. This can happen to your computer and the poor soul that has to fix it will feel no pitty for your Dumb move.

When I was working for the internet provider the worst days were the ones when people got/answered Spoof emails(Kitty is going to go into Detail on these I will just give an outline). Spoof emails are Fake emails designed to trick you into sending your information to a 3rd party. Doing this causes you to know this. What bothers me is ALL internet Companies that are ligit will not ask you for the information you find on these emails Most of them link you to a web page. Here is a logic Kick in the teeth, Most people see the log or what looks like it might be from there providers and answer it. Funny even with our Forum if we were going to email you and ask you to update your information we would like you to the Forums http://geekingout.us/BB/ and say Hey can you usdate this thanks!

Wouldn't you be concerned if we sent you an email that said Hey can you go update your information at www.bryir.info/iamgonnafuckyouover.html ? or it came from dantheman@yourscrewed.com you would be concerned right. That is cause you looked cause I pointed it out. Honestly and Truthfully we aren't going to ask, Since we can call most of the people on out Forums. AND you people know that we would call if there was a reason. Now for the record other information companies won't ask for in an email. username, password, creditcard number, pin number, verification number on the back of the card, your mothers maiden name, Social security number and any other personal information. Companies aren't going to ask for! Mainly because this is information that doesn't change that often and they got it at set up if something happens and they need it again they might do things to get your attention not email you. suspend or put your account on hold but not email you and ask. but Kitty will go into this more.

OK Online Blogs are the latest thing. LiveJournal.com, Xanga, Myspace These places are great but If you are too honest and straight forward you can give away your life and friends to a potential stalker or worse. This is one of those account either LOCK it make it friend only or be Smart about it. Don't list it as your given name don't give addresses or phone numbers on the site, Don't get too detailed in directions to your house. Hell when refering to where you live pick the closest big town or city. The bitch is in the Details. Here is proof of that. And that all started with a picture. This doesn't mean that you have to not give any details at all. I have my Journal open to the public. There are Details I leave out on it and some I keep in. I don't list where I live but by a community I am in you can guess I live in Omaha, But if you ask my yahoo account I live in Denver, Now if you ask the post office I live in 3 different places. So take your pick Where do I live. These are things I guess out of habit I have taken into my personal life too.

To be honest part of this artical is to make you think. Part of it is to scare you. And part of it is to Educate you on the fact that the internet isn't a safe place, but you can survive it. Try some of the stuff here see if it helps.

Azar
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